Crazy As It Sounded
by Irhaboggles
Summary: With Robert and Giselle married and Narissa dead, that leaves Nancy all alone again. At least until some other crazy evil witch lady crosses paths with her, but unlike Narissa, this one does not seem to be evil. Maybe once upon a time she was, but life had changed her and made her uncertain of herself. Nancy could definitely relate to this.


Nancy Tremaine strode down the darkened streets of NYC. As she walked along, she passed the place where she knew her ex-fiancée and his new family to live. As she passed the building that they called home, she flashed it a bittersweet smile. Despite all the pain that family had caused her, they really were very good and heroic people. They were kind and honest, gentle and caring. And because of that, Nancy still felt a very deep sense of loyalty and comradery to them. She had helped them save the world from the forces of evil not too long ago, that wasn't something she could just brush under the rug. But as fond as she was of them, that didn't change one simple fact: they had each other, Nancy had no one.

Nancy really had loved Robert. Even when it became clear that he was falling in love with someone else, Giselle, her affection for him was strong. It only ever waned because she hated to think that Robert might've found someone better, but even though she had since made her peace with him and his new wife over that fact, that still left her very much alone, and she wasn't very happy about that...

"Ooof! Sorry!" Nancy grumbled. She'd been so lost in her self-pitying thoughts that she had run right into another late-night city walker without even realizing it. She had the decency to look up and see who it was she had collided with. The moment they made eye contact, she recoiled back. It was a woman cloaked in a black and purple robe. Her face was lined with black, purple and green makeup and she had two big black horns twisting up out of her skull. In her hand was a large wooden staff that Nancy somehow knew was a wand, crazy as it sounded.

Bad memories of the last time Nancy had encountered a person like this began to flood her mind and she bristled up at once.

"Woah, woah, woah!" she hissed. "Who are you? What do you want? And if you think I'm going to let you hurt Robert or Giselle..." Nancy trailed off threateningly as she raised her fists. Even if they wouldn't do much against an evil witch, Nancy still refused to go out without a fight. She'd battled an evil witch queen with dark magic before, she would do it again in a heartbeat!

"I have no idea what sort of idiocy you're blabbering on about," the figure snapped in reply. The voice was feminine, and laced with icy bitterness. But as hostile as the reply had been, Nancy couldn't help but feel like this stranger was telling the truth.

"Well, then, who are you?" Nancy asked, sounding more uncertain than before. She even lowered her fists to show that she meant no ill will. Yet.

"I am Maleficent," Nancy blinked. Who?

Rewind about an hour back and Maleficent had been slinking down the long and dingy roads of this strange new world alone. After her own daughter had turned against her, she had been forced to flee her kingdom, lest she be returned to that awful place known as the Isle of the Lost. Ironically, though, Maleficent had found herself feeling more lost here in this new world than she ever had back on the Isle of the Lost. She really didn't have the slightest clue where she was, and she wasn't even really sure how she had come to this place. All she knew was that she was very far from home. Home. What a bitter and cruel place that had been! The mistress of all evil still held her backstabbing daughter in contempt, but the contempt wasn't as strong as it was supposed to be. Angry as she was with Mal's betrayal, there was something preventing her from feeling the usual consuming rage that she felt whenever she got made. The fact that she could not bring herself to totally desire revenge against treacherous Mal made her feel deeply uncomfortable and quite emotionally lost to boot, but she had no idea what to do about it.

It had been during this attempt of hers to navigate the winding pathways of the land before her and in the thoughts inside of her that she had collided with another woman. But before she could curse the little imbecile for being so clumsy, the woman had apologized. Then she had looked up, and the moment she got an eyeful of Maleficent, she reared back. Maleficent couldn't help but smile wickedly at that, and then when Nancy asked for her name, Maleficent had drawn herself up as she spoke her name with a calm and eerie sort of conviction.

"I am Maleficent," her voice was strong and mighty and her name hung in the air with a resolute aura of power. Maleficent felt quite proud of herself for that! But the woman asked another question that totally ruined the moment.

"You mean like the Disney character?" Nancy snorted.

"Disney?" Maleficent replied, genuinely confused. What in Auradon was a "Disney character"? Meanwhile, Nancy, sensing that this woman really was genuinely confused about everything, bit her lip shyly. Maybe this really was the real Maleficent. Crazy as it sounded, Nancy had already seen one fairytale prince, princess and evil witch come to life, what was to stop her from seeing another? But this time, this evil witch didn't seem so evil. If anything, she seemed very lost. Nancy could relate.

"Oh!" she cried suddenly, realizing she had not explained anything to Maleficent. "I'm Nancy, by the way."

"Nancy," Maleficent repeated. What an ugly, plain old name. Nothing half so glorious as Maleficent!

"Might I ask where you have come from?" Nancy tried next.

"Exile," Maleficent replied dismissively.

"Oh," Nancy echoed. Maybe Maleficent had somehow survived her fairytale and been sent away and somehow ended up here?

For a moment more, only silence remained, each of the two women contemplating the other. Maleficent found this Nancy character to be quite amusing, if a little bit screwy in the head (Robert? Giselle? Names she'd never heard before! Disney? Who was that?). And Nancy, meanwhile, was trying to gage how dangerous Maleficent was right now. On the one hand, she wanted to immediately kick this evil witch to the curb before NYC could suffer another dragon-witch attack. On the other, though, Nancy knew that it might be easier said than done and perhaps the best course of action would be to keep Maleficent in the dark for now so that she remained in this subdued state. Besides, since Nancy had no idea how to send Maleficent away, it wouldn't do well for her to try and attack the woman now, especially since she hadn't done any harm yet.

In the end, Nancy made the wild decision to take Maleficent home with her. But what else was she supposed to do? Kick down Robert and Giselle's door and demand their help? Leave Maleficent to her own devices? Try to somehow get the jump on her and kill her? None of those were very good options at the moment, so Nancy decided to go with one slightly better option: taking the evil-dragon-witch-queen-mistress-of-all-evil home with her. What could possibly go wrong?!

"I must be off my rocker!" Nancy told herself, but then she extended a hand to Maleficent. "It seems like you could use a place to stay."

"Why?" Maleficent scowled at Nancy's hand.

"Because I've been feeling a little bit lost too, and maybe you could help me find my way as well," Nancy admitted. In the back of her mind, she couldn't believe she was giving out such personal information to an evil sorceress, but it seemed to do the trick and Maleficent finally agreed.

"Very well, take me to your lair and let us see what we can do!" she declared as she took Nancy's hand and held it tight. Crazy as it sounded, Nancy quite liked the feeling, and even crazier, so did Maleficent. It was a very strange night for both of them, but maybe the morning would yield some answers.

**AN: An Idina/Kristin character crossover.**


End file.
